In The Land Of China: There is no Facebook but There is a Ton of KFC

We pulled into Hong Kong and it was a ridic huge city! big difference from nam. we docked and we literally docked into a mall. You walked right off the ship into a starbuckesque coffee place. it was unlike anything we had done so far. There were no stairs just a bridge into the mall. For china I had signed up for a HUGE independent trip. The tour operator does it with SAS every time they come through, so they know how to work with us and it is super nice. We had a tour all day of Hong Kong or Honk Honk as they say it. Hong Kong is on all these smaller islands so there are lots of bridges and it reminded me of NYC. First, we went to this gold flower thing that was a big memorial to Hong Kong becoming independent of Britain in 1997. We were across on a different island and this area had an amazing view of the ship against the skyline it was really cool. Hong Kong is considered china but when they re acquired it they used the term " 1 country 2 systems" so the government there is not nearly as strictly communist (facebook works and there are magazines and stuff from the US). They have a different currency and everything and our flight to Beijing was considered an international flight. It is very confusing! So after that we went to lunch and had dim sum, which was very yummy!

Afterwards, we went to a Buddhist temple. I am def. putting Buddhism in my religious shopping cart. t was such a cool temple and they believe in all this incense burning so there were these massive coils of incense burning everywhere. Like HUGE coils that burn for 3-4 weeks. It was really pretty and cool to see something so different. Then we took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak. The tram was like a rollercoaster ride it went STRAIGHT up. The views of the city were breathtaking. The tram pulled into this huge mall complete with a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. It was so so pretty. Then we took this boat ride to a floating fishing village and cruised passed the worlds largest floating restaurant (it can feed 1,000 people at once!)

We headed to Repulse Bay, which was this really pretty beach and it had all these fun sculpture and stuff. We didn’t spend much time there, but it was a nice are to get to see. We went to Stanley Market after that to shop a little. Hong Kong was SO expensive like ridiculous. Especially coming off of Viet Nam and their cheap cheap prices. So we didn't really buy much. We headed back to the ship and Kara had found me an CURRENT AMERICAN issue of People magazine. I almost died because that is def. what I have been missing the most (I know it is really silly and superficial, but it is my guilty pleasure!). it was the best present ever. Drew went to go ichat his rents and gen and I went to go find dinner. everywhere in the mall was so expensive so we ended up having dinner at McDonalds. We are all like we never eat this stuff at home, but sometimes we just need food we know so it is an easy, fast and cheap place to go. We went back to the ship to watch the light show over the harbor. We then when out and had a rough night. Bad decisions were made all around, but nonetheless we survived slightly unscathed, with some UPIs (unidentifiable party injuries).

Miracle on miracle we got up on time to head to the airport. all still struggling hardcore. Drew and I fell asleep on each other in a pile on the bus there. he had to fill out all these extra forms in the airport they knew we were bad news. The Hong Kong airport is RIDIC. they had a Tiffany’s, Gucci, Mac everything. I got ramen and ate, which still didn't help. Then we had a longggg flight to Beijing (4+ hours) of which I slept the WHOLE time. they had these funny videos with exercises for people to do in their seats though to help with circulations. Asians are weird. on Drew’s plane before they landed they took every newspaper coming from Hong Kong since it wasn't censored. it is very interesting. we broke through the clouds in Beijing and saw everything covered in snow, which was a huge eye opener! the plane was 3/4 SAS and we all collectively go OH WOW. it hasn't been cold in a while. we got off the plane and I got STARBUCKS!! (I know awesome it was next to a KFC too).

we then headed to the hotel. it was a nice hotel a little communist but clean so that was good. we had the night free and gen had gotten a recommendation of a restaurant to go to. the communication thing was really really hard though. very few people spoke English and since it isn't even the same alphabet we were really shit out of luck. we had to make sure we always had the hotel card with us and then have the hotel write down in Chinese everywhere we wanted or needed to go and we ALWAYS needed a map. there were too many of us for 1 cab and we tried to have them follow each other but we ended up losing each other so I was with gen and Kareem. we found this mall and actually found the restaurant we were recommended but it was dirty and gross. even Kareem said no (which is major cuz he’s a boy and pretty hardcore). so we found this other restaurant, which appeared to be cute and looked good. they had an English menu, which was good. we then proceeded to have the worst meal I have ever consumed in my entire life. ever. the dumplings were good. they refused to serve us rice because I think they were closing soon. so I ordered tofu with crab meat, gen got what she thought were spare ribs and Kareem ordered "shanghai chicken". when gen tried her spare rib she started gagging so much I thought she was going to vomit in her plate. my tofu was the worst thing I have EVER EVER tasted. and Kareem chicken had the head on it. yup little cooked chicken head. it was bad. we paid and left with the majority of our food still on our plate. As we were leaving some random man who looked well off pointed to the food to figure out if we were done with it and we were like YES and he then proceeded to eat it. gross. we went to dairy queen and got blizzards instead. We always try the authentic food, but I’m telling you after 4 months of weird countries sometimes McDonalds and DQ are just a necessity. We walked around the area a bunch and it was really cool and well developed. Burberry, Coach and all these huge high end stores and it was pretty clean. I was very surprised. We headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The 3rd day in china and the 2nd in Beijing we woke up and went straight to the Silk Market. It wasn’t open yet so we hit up McDonalds and starbucks for warm drinks and chicken sandwiches. It was easy to forget where we are. Finally the Silk Market opened. one would expect silk here- nope. They had loads of knocks offs and clothes, jewelry, shoes, everything. We stocked up on warm clothes. I got lined water proof pants and a hat and some fuggs (fake uggs).We were laughing so hard because we were finally in real Asia where nothing fits us. I am usually like usually a small and I was buying XL sizes. they were straight up laughing at drew and Kareem going "yous so biiiiig". It was hilarious. We headed back out on the bus and had our first hands on experience with the bureaucracy of a communist country. We sat on the bus for 40 minutes in the parking lot and we were all getting frustrated. Finally, our tour guide got on and explained that we were not supposed to be visiting the Silk Market that day but they had changed the schedule, so we could get warm clothes for our night on the wall. Because of this the proper paperwork had not been filed with the government documenting our whereabouts. So we had to sit around while the government recognized that we had stopped at the Silk Market. ridic.



We then headed out to the Hutong area of Beijing. Hutongs are these narrow alleyways that connect houses. They are basically small winding neighborhoods. We had lunch in a traditional Chinese home and it was so good. There were all different types of food and it was delish and the family was so nice and sweet. The whole family (grandmother, parents, children spouses) all live in one house. This one was sort of run down but they said per square foot it was worth a ton because it was so historic and in such a central part of Beijing. Then we got in traditional tiny rickshaws with bicyclists and toured the area. Kareem and I sat in ours; they are so small! I was so afraid we were going to tip over. The roads were not particularly good and since it had snowed it was all muddy and slush. This really killed my sneakers. We got a nice tour and said bye to our rickshaw peddlerman. We headed up the drum tower all 69 steps up to the top. It was a great view of the city and there was a small drum show with all the giant drums that are kept up there. We then boarded up with buses and headed out the 2 hours to the Great Wall.

 We got to the wall around sunset and it was freeeeeezing.
 It was so snowy the bus couldn’t really make it up to the entrance so we had to slip and slide up the hill till we got to the base of the wall. Then we hiked up a portion to get a good view of the sunset. After taking some pictures we headed back down before all the light was gone. We went to a local restaurant for dinner. We got there and a bunch of kids asked to use the rest room and some one plucked up the courage to ask where we pee on the great wall. Our tiny Chinese tour guide simply answers “the bucket or the wall”. I had known this already from Kate but it threw everyone into near hysterics. We all used the gross bathroom at the restaurant. Thankfully it had 1 toilet and wasn’t all squatty potties (which are gross). Dinner was ok and I got a bottle of wine since everyone was drinking beer and we all know I don’t roll like that.

After dinner was over we all got back on the bus and attempted to change into our warm clothes. This was a struggle with all 30 of us trying to maneuver into all these bulky warm clothes on the bus together, but we finally did it. We drove about fifteen minutes to where we had to complete our 40-minute hike up to where we would be sleeping. We were given the option to opt out of the outside sleeping part and get a hotel at no additional cost, some kids decided to do this and I was seriously considering it, but decided to force myself to face the cold. This was a rough hike. It was almost completely vertical with a ton of steps. Everyone was given a flashlight and it was so disheartening to look up the mountain and see lights all the way to where the sky would be and realize you still had like a bajillion more stairs to go. Finally, we made it to the top and at this point we were all sweating and took off our 8 layers. It was about 10 degrees so we got cold again really fast and rebundled up. We later found out that it may actually be illegal to actually sleep on the Great Wall and that is why we had to hike so far to get to our spot. But whatever we didn’t get arrested so it’s ok. They had snacks and stuff up there and provided us with beer and I had my bottle of wine so we all just sort of hung out and drank in the frigid weather. Finally, we decided it was too cold to be in the whipping wind and we retreated into one of the towers where we decided to sleep. Some crazy kids slept unsheltered outside without the structure to shield the wind like crazy people! And I am proud to say I was able to pop a squat and I peed on the Great Wall! I was so proud of my self!! We all settled in and went to sleep in our sleeping bags. We were each supposed to have 2 and a mat but someone slept in our tower who wasn’t supposed to and stole a bunch of people sleeping bags so Gen and I had to share…which made it that much colder.

We woke up with sunrise and got to watch the sun come over the Great Wall, which was very cool. I also do not think I have ever been that cold in my entire life. We headed out on our 6-mile hike through the Simatai region of the Great Wall. At some points this was near impossible. Sometimes the wall was so destroyed that we had to climb on the mountain around the wall to get to the next section. There was also one section that was nearly 90 degrees straight up, which would have been a lot easier if it wasn’t covered in ice. The wall was massive. We decided that the Chinese speak in poems all the time like they don’t have a word for seafoam green its like green of the waves crashing in the south china sea…couldn’t that have come up with a better name then just the Great Wall? I mean like wall of giant spine curling over the majestic mountains…like SOMETHING a little more descriptive right? It was a long hike we had a lot to discuss. After about 3 hours we made it to the end of our section and the zipline. I was very apprehensive of this Chinese zipline and almost didn’t do but Gen forced me to. It turns out we were able to be strapped in together so we went over this huge gorge and river off the wall. It was scary but I am so glad I did it.

Then we headed to a restaurant for lunch. This was the first time my germaphobia actually really upset me the entire voyage. They only had GROSS dirty squat potties and I was tired and just couldn’t do it. I was near tears. Drew and Gen both gave me very detailed demonstrations on how to do it and I just couldn’t. Eventually, it will be something to laugh at, but I was at my wits end with China hygiene by that point. And I just cried a little. I was cold and tired and all I wanted to do was pee but I couldn’t. This was a sad sad china moment.

We got back on the buses and headed back to Beijing and our hotel. Showers were the first thing we did and then Gen, Kareem, Drew and I headed out to the Silk Market to finish up our shopping. When we were in the mall the day before we had seen a movie theater and decided it would be a fun experience to see a movie in China. We headed back to the mall and went to pick up our tickets. We ended up running into on the professors on the ship and his family and decided to do a mitzvah. It was their son’s 14th birthday and he was with them and had his heart set on seeing 2012 (which we were going to see) except the 9:20 showing they were supposed to go see was sold out, so we invited him to come hang out with us and go to the 10:20 and we would walk him back to his hotel afterward. He was so cute and grateful he didn’t have to spend his whole birthday with just his family and got to see this movie too. We felt like we did a nice thing and it was fun! We hit up pizza hut for dinner…we had to. We were so over Chinese food and let me tell you it was so good. It was fancy too! It was weird! They had like nice pasta dishes and drew and I got this pumpkin seafood appetizer, which was really good. Kareem insulted the waitress because the menu said a large fed 3-4 people and he asked if that was 3-4 Chinese people and proceeded to order and eat an entire large pizza. The movie was super fun and interesting. It was in English, but subtitled in Chinese. They also sold dried squid as a movie theater snack. It turned out that part of the movie actually took place in China so that was really cool.

After the movie ended we walked Danny back to his hotel and went back to ours and crashed before our crazy day in Beijing.

Our last day in Beijing was extremely busy and cold. Our first stop of the day was at the Forbidden City. It was packed with crazy Chinese people and we were cracking up the whole time. The Forbidden City was very cool too see but it got slightly repetitive and we really rushed through it because it was indescribably cold. We walked through the Forbidden City and ended up right in Tianmen Square. We were so excited to take pictures in front of the giant Mao picture but the communist police didn’t really like that idea and it had a lot of security, but we still got a few! To get into the actual Tianmen Square we had to go underground and then we came right in the middle of the square. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go into Mao’s Mausoleum, but it would have been very interesting to see his badly preserved body and crystal coffin. After Tianmen Square we headed to a traditional Peking Duck lunch. It was served with little moo shoo like pancakes and hoison sauce and was delicious. Gen and I picked up some push pops and Great Wall Wine for the impending overnight train ride.

After lunch we headed out to Olympic Park, which was breathtaking. We were able to pay to go into the Bird’s Nest and it was one of the coolest things I have ever been in in my life. The structure was so complex and huge. We were not able to go inside the Water Cube because it was under construction, but we got to see the outside. It was also really amazing and I was surprised how close the two were to each other.

The Summer Palace was out next stop, and it was another outside one that we tried to breeze through because it was so cold. It was pretty and interesting that there was this huge lake palace in the middle of the city. It is definitely a spot that intensifies its beauty with the summer months. It was a little frozen over- for obvious reasons.

There was a lot of extra time since we had gone through the palace so fast due to the cold. The tour guide wanted to take us to some type of show, but it was an addition $20 and none of us really had the money. So we convinced her to take us to the Pearl Market (also didn’t really sell pearls) and we got our last minute stuff and snacks for the train. Drew and I found a bakery place and it was soooo good. We got to the train station pretty early and it was way more developed than I thought it would be. They had like 4 McDonalds and KFCs (the Chinese really do LOVE their KFCs). Drew and I found this place that had this delicious soup with dumplings and also this beef soup. There was a huge communication barrier here and there was a lot of pointing and gesturing. Then halfway through our delicious soup I saw an eyelash in one of the bowls. I tried so hard to get over my germness but then some guy hocked up and spit ON THE FLOOR of the restaurant. They also love the spitting in china. I looked at drew and was he just nodded and was like ok, we can go now. So we got some snacks and got on our sleeper train. I figured the bathroom thing was going to be an ish again, but we got on and it was super clean and there were toilets! I was ecstatic!! The train was actually very nice. We had the whole car but it was split into compartments with 4 beds in each compartment. There was a little confusion at the beginning because a bunch of people switched rooms and we couldn’t figure out who was where, but everything got settled. We drank a little (the Great Wall wine was goood) and all hung out. The beds and train were nice, not super clean there were some hairs and fuzz, but gen and I are getting so close that she thankfully swept off my bunk. We all crashed around 3am and then got into Shanghai at 8am and headed to the ship. The view of the skyline from the ship was absolutely ridiculous. That cool space future looking building was right behind the ship. The skyline was amazing.

Since china also loves the bureaucracy we weren’t allowed to leave the ship for about 2 hours after we got on because the government needed to reprocess us and issue us shore passes. During time we found out that we weren’t actually leaving Shanghai that night like we were supposed to! There was inclement weather so they extend our stay by a day. The weather must have been really bad because it is really expensive to keep us in a port. Hong Kong was $130,000 per day just to give an idea. There was a rumor that Obama was going to be coming aboard and that was why we had the delay. People thought he was going to be our 100th voyage speaker. I knew this was NOT happening, but people were convinced since he was in Shanghai anyways. Alas, this did not happen (hate to say I told you so).

We finally got off the ship that day and Kara, Gen, Drew and I just explored Shanghai. We had planned on going to the Jade Buddha Temple, but the day just got away from us. We shopped and had lunch at a very local food court like restaurant. I was getting pretty sick of Chinese food at this point, but I was able to find some good dumplings. It was pouring through all of this and freezing, which made conditions less than favorable. We ended up finding a huge indoor market and it had such funny stuff. We call it China Glitter Sparkle Surprise Stuff. We bought lots of useless things including feather headbands and panda shaped usb splitters.

After this market Kara and I still needed to find a market for our Food & Culture class. We are allowed to use 2 supermarkets and we realized this country was just going to need to be one of those. We got sent to E-Mart (it was quite a feat trying to get across supermarket to the Chinese) but we found it and it was like Chinese Wal-Mart! Kara got funny slippers and a water bottle with Engrish on them. Engrish is what happens when Chinese and Japanese people attempt to try to translate things into English and screw it up just enough that it is hilarious. Then we headed down to the super market area and oh man it was ridiculous. We found a great example of Engrish when we found the “Fresh Bekery” (bakery). I know this totally offensive and we realize we are going to be in big trouble when we get home and are talking like this and when we realize that everyone around us can actually understand what we are saying. But the bekery was great! They had a “Breakfast” section, which was 3 aisles of instant ramen. Then we made our way over to the fish section. HAHA oh man. They had live frogs just jumping around in a cage and then they had dead turtles in bags like we would put oranges in. There were also giant live fish swimming in tanks with open tops. One actually jumped out at Drew and he fell on the floor trying to get away from it. Yet another amusing fall. They also had live eels and catfish in huge tanks too, and chicken feet. After exploring the supermarket for a while we ventured back out into the cold freezing rain and found dinner. I had the real chow fun noodles (for mom) and they were delicious. Then we headed back to the boat and Drew and I attempted to find internet in the pouring rain. We struggled for a long while and finally found a Starbucks 10 minutes before they closed. I was able to call mom and dad for enough time to figure out my credit cards weren’t working. I made them promise before I left that they would give up their hippy non-capitalistic ways for FOUR MONTHS and remember to pay the bills. That is all I wanted was FOUR MONTHS. But alas this was not doable. So we got all that settled and headed back into the rain to the ship. A bunch of kids were going to some club but after our internet debacle I was just annoyed and went to sleep.

Kara and I got up early to head back to the Starbucks to get internet before the ship left that afternoon. Unfortunately since we were in China facebook did not work but I was able to talk to mom and Emma Kate and stuff. Sadly, Tim had a work dinner and I thought I was going to get to talk to him for a while but he wasn’t around. It was a bummer. Then Gen and Drew met us and we headed up to the Jade Buddha Temple. It was super cool and gorgeous. People were lighting incense everywhere and they had these huge wax candle flowers. The Jade Buddha was very pretty. They also had this gigantic koi pond. Dad would have loved it. The Koi were HUGE and so trained that they would eat out of your hands like a dog. It was strange.

Then we went on our last quest of China: Dunkin Donuts. They had them in Shanghai. We were freaking out and so excited (it is the little things these days). So try to imagine 4 American kids trying to communicate Dunkin Donuts to a bunch of Chinese people. Needless to say this took FOREVER and finally we found another Sashole who was able to point us in the right direction. When we got there it was filled with sasholes everywhere. We got iced lattes, they didn’t taste exactly the same but they were close, they didn’t have bagels but we got like a billion donuts. They even had green tea and all these crazy flavors. We hopped a cab and scarfed the donuts on the way back to the ship and got on just in time for on ship time.

China was a whirlwind. I did more in 7 days than I think I have ever done and it was a blast. It was so different and the cold definitely put a different twist on the intense traveling we have been doing. The extra day in Shanghai also meant we only had 2 days before Japan, which was not a lot of recovery time. But we just had to keep pushing on!